Where would you put a soakaway in this garden?

Su Esse

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

Would be grateful for thoughts on the following (please see diagram - I'm no artist and it's not to scale!):

Background info:

We're having a house extension and would like to put a soakaway in the garden.
Our road slopes, and the area Y (shaded purple) often gets flooded. If there is torrential rain, sometimes the flooding can extend to the herb patch. We'd like the soakaway to fix this in addition to draining the water from our planned extension.
There are a number of trees along the periphery (marked), which we will keep. The herb patch and bushes in area Y could be re-sited, but ideally we'd like as much space as possible in the garden overall to create veg, herb + flower beds.
The builder suggests putting a soakaway in area X.

Questions:

Will putting a soakaway in area X fix the flooding problem in area Y (and surrounds)?
If not, what would fix the problem? (would planting more trees help?)
Where is best to put a soakaway?

Thanks in advance. (I'll also put a separate post about garden layout ideas, but if you have any, please feel free to comment - any advice appreciated!)

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Comments (5)

arc3d
2 years ago
Your builder is right about the location, but it won't have much effect on the "y" area. ou could easily remedy that by adding another soakaway near "y".
Ruth House
2 years ago
Hi, we have a similar problem in our garden.

Does your land slope downhill towards Y? Ours does and 3 gardeners round to quote for soakaway and French drains all suggested soak aways should be 'at bottom of hill'. It's not a hill, a very slight gradient but never the less I would think your soak needs to be closer to the problem area?!
Su Esse thanked Ruth House
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PRO
Michael Cochrane
2 years ago
By law the soak away must be at least 5m from any building or boundary. Its effectiveness will depend on the nature of the soil, its size, and depth. Do a soakage test to determine the ground permeability. If your builder doesn’t do this, you have the wrong builder.
Su Esse thanked Michael Cochrane
Su Esse
Original Author
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
@Ruth House - thanks, yes exactly it slopes towards Y. That's what I thought - ideally I'd like to have a single soakaway (they are not cheap!) to address both problem area Y and the needs of the extension.
Su Esse
Original Author
2 years ago
@Michael Cochrane didn't know that, many thanks. I don't think site X is 5 metres away from the planned extension, so perhaps it would be sensible to site it nearer Y.

Where would you put a soakaway in this garden?

Comments (5)

arc3d

Ruth House

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Where would you put a soakaway in this garden?

Comments (5)

arc3d

Ruth House

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Michael Cochrane

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